It’s the great Lib Dem Tory economic love in

There is a tradition of maintaining a vow of silence in the run-up to a Budget, but this year purdah has been replaced by a strip tease. The Tories and the Liberal Democrats are rushing to unveil their secrets ahead of the Chancellor’s statement tomorrow. Indeed, the coalition parties seem to be competing to expose their policies early so they can claim credit for the most popular ones.

George Osborne and Danny Alexander have been jostling to take ownership of an expected rise in the threshold at which people start to pay income tax. The two sides have been boasting of a new garden city, help for bingo halls and a fuel tax freeze. Today David Cameron and Nick Clegg — willing to share the glory…